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In the area of security and safety applications, we are investigating the potential impact of emerging communications technologies for public safety. Cognitive radio is being studied for enhanced interoperability and availability of communication systems in EU-wide multi-national operational scenario. Sensor networks are being studied for surveillance of sensitive public areas. In the design domain, we investigate radio frequency (RF) threats and interference in communication and navigation systems. These can have serious impact on intelligent transportation systems and next generation ICT systems. Vulnerabilities of next generation information-communications systems are being studied as the architectures of next generation networks (NGN) are emerging and new relevant standards are being defined. 
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Ionospheric scintillation monitoring station installed in Perù |
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Jicamarca, May 2012 Many modern technological infrastructures are vulnerable to the impact of geomagnetic storms – a recurring natural hazard caused by solar activity that can have serious impacts on infrastructures and services such as satellites, electrical power grids, telecommunication networks, navigation, transport or banking. The JRC is analysing the impact of space weather on global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers. A possible impact of severe geomagnetic storms on critical infrastructures relying on GPS for precise timing and synchronization relates to the triggering of ionospheric scintillation in the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) frequency bands. In May 2012 the JRC installed a ionospheric scintillation monitoring station at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory in Perù. This monitoring station will allow the JRC to collect reference data containing a wide spectrum of ionospheric scintillation events and to create a library of severe scintillation events that can be used in JRC’s laboratories to investigate how the performance of commercial receivers gets affected. This library could be of great interest to any stakeholder that needs to certify that a certain receiver is performing properly in some critical applications during a severe scintillation event. Data from the JRC monitoring station will be compared with numerical prediction models of the ionosphere performed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Although so far the scintillation activity in the Equatorial South America Region has been extremely low, the comparison between scintillation information measured by JRC’s receivers and NOAA numerical predictions have shown encouraging results, with a perfect agreement in 80% of the cases. A significant increase of scintillation activities is expected in the October-November 2012, with the peak activity in the period December 2012 – February 2013. |
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CORSA action